Long Beach’s new Gerald Desmond Bridge took a decade and more than $1 billion to build

This cable-stayed bridge is held up by 80 white cables attached to two towers, which do the heavy lifting. After 10 years of construction and nearly $1.5 billion, the replacement Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach opened to traffic. The bridge brings more engineering drama to an area that already has the green Vincent Thomas suspension bridge. The two-mile, six-lane new crossing soars above the water, but it appears light and elegant. Designed by Arup, it is California’s first cable-stayed, vehicular bridge (the new North Atwater bridge in Los Feliz is a cable-stayed pedestrian crossover). This means all the heavy lifting is done by two slender but very strong towers. Attached to each of those towers are 40 cables that splay out like a fan or a skirt to the edge of the bridge. The new bridge — to be renamed eventually — was built primarily because the port needed a taller bridge and wider dock to allow bigger container ships entry. The replacement bridge was constructed to allow more height and wider entry for today’s super sized container ships. Photo courtesy of Denis Wolcott/the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project. The global transport of goods, however, is a big […]

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